The traveling carpenter, cabinetmaker/installer, and general handyperson has always needed easily transportable work surfaces for jobsite use. Traditional devices invariably involve multiple compromises between mobility, complexity, weight, versatility, and ergonomics. The skilled craftsperson requires a strong, flat, rigid, stable platform that can be set up easily, quickly, and accurately in various environments, and which allows comfortable access to workpieces of many sizes. Typical solutions to these needs involve saw horses with plywood or old doors placed on top to make a platform. These are unstable and irregular and are poor substitutes for the sort of stout work bench that would traditionally be used in a workshop, but which is too heavy and cumbersome to transport.
Numerous attempts have been made during the last 100 years to devise a good, mobile substitute for the shop bench. To varying extents, all are defined by compromise, whether in pursuit of light weight, convenient size based on transportability, and/or the complexity/variety of integrated features and accessories. Common complaints are that, for example, what is available is too small to be of practical use, too low, too flexible, or too constrained by an ill-conceived method of work to allow the craftsperson to fully utilize his/her creativity in an efficient way.
In addition, it is useful to integrate various accessories with a work surface. For example, guides and mounts to facilitate making cuts, such as crosscuts, using power saws have been developed. However, existing assemblies have been unable to provide the levels of precision required for high quality wood working. As another example, it can be desirable to use a work surface in combination with a portable table saw. However, universal supports capable of providing a secure and accurately aligned connection between such table saws and work surfaces have not been available.